A small city in central Philippines has been declared cleared of illegal drugs, with zero police killings. Barnaby Lo has the story.

In early March, a few months after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte reinstated the Philippine National Police or PNP back into his drug war, a 13-year old boy, Aldrinne Pineda, was shot dead by a cop.

BARNABY LO MANILA "So this is apparently where Aldrinne was sitting with two of his friends and a cop who was on duty at that time at this slaughterhouse has admitted to having killed Aldrinne. But he said it was an accident. He said that he fell over and that was when he accidentally shot Aldrinne."

From that, however, the suspect, Omar Malinao, has shifted his story to other versions, making it difficult to determine why and how he killed the boy. Whatever the case, human rights advocates say it is proof that a number of law enforcers continue to act with impunity.

BOBIT LIBROJO HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE "Every individual killing that is done with impunity is very alarming."

BARNABY LO BOGO CITY, CENTRAL PHILIPPINES "Philippine police leadership promised a less bloody, if not totally bloodless drug war since their reinstatement into the campaign back in December. But from December 2017 to March 2018, police have killed more than a hundred drug suspects. It has only been bloodless in one city, here in the Central Philippines."

Bogo City had its own share of drug problems, but it didn't mean the solution had to mirror the rest of the country's, according to its former police chief Byron Allatog. Along with local officials, Superintendent Allatog, now assigned to another city, has been credited with eliminating illegal drugs without having to fire a single shot. He does acknowledge circumstances that necessitate self defense, but he says with proper planning, it doesn't even have to come to that.

BYRON ALLATOG EX-POLICE CHIEF, BOGO CITY "If you are three steps ahead, then definitely when you do actual operations, then they are caught blank. Even if he has a gun, if you are there, ahead, he cannot pull it out."

Allatog also encouraged his men and women to go beyond making arrests. They've made friends with drug users and are present in community rehabilitation activities.

BYRON ALLATOG EX-POLICE CHIEF, BOGO CITY "We focus on the drug pushers only in the neutralization aspect. We do not focus on users because we are advocating for rehabilitation of these users and you target users, then the users definitely will not trust the PNP and the LGU."

That trust – almost unimaginable between drug users and the police in the course of a violent drug war can be achieved, Allatog says, if authorities prioritize helping, rather than penalizing, drug users. Barnaby Lo, CGTN, in the Philippines.